Corvée Labor

Chapter 7: Corvée Labor

Overnight, dawn arrived. The kitchen was already wreathed in curling smoke, white porridge bubbled in the pot, and the medicinal liquid in the jar had long since boiled.

In the courtyard, Chu Mu gripped a long saber and swung it through one move after another. Once his body grew slightly warm, he decisively stopped practicing. After loosening up a little, he stepped into the kitchen.

A bowl of white porridge, a dish of pickles, and several steamed buns Chu Mu had made himself.

Of course, there was also an enormous bowl of bitter medicinal broth.

After finishing breakfast, Chu Mu picked up the cloth bundle containing his writing supplies... and went out... to school.

If Chu Mu remembered correctly, the original owner was seventeen years old. Beginning his education at seventeen—he wondered whether this was the rhythm of a late bloomer.

Chu Mu was not sure whether that was the case, but he truly found it somewhat embarrassing.

Although quite a few students around his age studied at the private school, they had basically all been studying for years and were preparing for the imperial examinations.

Those just beginning their education were basically a group of six- or seven-year-old children. Even the older ones were barely into their teens.

Although the original owner had a frail physique, a seventeen-year-old sitting among a group of children, reading the same books and learning the same characters...

The scene was utterly discordant, and psychologically, it was mortifying...

The day... was very long...

At dusk, amid the chattering voices of a group of children, Chu Mu slowly walked out through the gate of the private school.

He stopped, turned back, and looked once more at the plaque hanging beneath the eaves. Chu Mu could now recognize the two characters.

The teacher's surname was Chang, and since his residence was here, the plaque naturally read "Chang Residence."

"I miscalculated."

After a day of attending school and studying alongside children, the experience was truly difficult to put into words.

The twenty silver had already been paid. If he changed his mind now, that twenty silver would truly have been thrown into the water.

Fortunately, today had only been an opportunity to see what the private school was like. After he went to the Patrol Inspectorate to take up his post, he could study in his spare time after finishing work, which would spare him the embarrassment of sharing a classroom with children.

Otherwise, Chu Mu really would have considered changing to another way of studying.

"I'll just learn slowly."

Chu Mu sighed softly. Going from knowing nothing to reading and writing was no easy task.

After glancing at the Light Screen Panel, Chu Mu's mood improved considerably. After focusing on his studies for a day, his "Spiritual Radiance Value" had surged by nearly twenty percent. At this rate, it would not take more than a few days for the "Spiritual Radiance Value" to reach the one-hundred-percent threshold again.

"I still need to make a proper plan."

Tightening his grip on the writing supplies in his hand, Chu Mu pondered inwardly. "Spiritual Radiance" was hard-won, and using it to enhance what he was currently studying was truly wasteful.

As he thought, Chu Mu began walking, heading slowly toward his own residence beneath the afterglow of the setting sun.

"Move! Hurry up!"

"Stop dragging your feet! If you're any slower, you won't even get to eat!"

Just after he left the alley, several indistinct shouts reached Chu Mu's ears. He instinctively looked up and saw several Patrol Inspectors riding tall horses at the head of the street, while other Patrol Inspectors escorted dozens of civilians in various clothes, herding them along in the middle. The shouts clearly came from the surrounding Patrol Inspectors.

The scene instantly awakened memories in Chu Mu's mind. His expression changed slightly, and he silently stepped aside, watching the mighty procession pass before him.

Chu Mu was naturally not unfamiliar with such a scene. Strictly speaking, the original owner was not unfamiliar with it either.

Conscripting forced labor had always been an indispensable part of an ancient dynasty's operation.

The scene before him was clearly another round of forced labor conscription in Qinghe County.

And in Nanshan Town, it was even more commonplace. The mines were state-owned, and all the miners were forced laborers conscripted by the county. They were rotated every six months—it was as ordinary as could be.

According to his memories, the original owner's father had also died because of forced labor.

It seemed that the Prefecture had conscripted a thousand forced laborers from Qinghe County to repair the riverways, and the original owner's father had been one of those responsible for escorting them.

It had been an ordinary official assignment. Who could have imagined that he would leave and never return?

It was not only the original owner's father. The thousand forced laborers, along with the Patrol Inspectors who had accompanied them, had all vanished without a trace.

The news sent from the Prefecture claimed that a sudden flood had killed and injured tens of thousands. Since the forced laborers from Qinghe County had been working on a section downstream along the river, not one had survived.

Of course, that was merely the Prefecture's announcement. No one knew what had really happened, just as no one knew why the Patrol Inspectors who were only responsible for escorting the forced laborers had all somehow ended up at the construction site.

After all, the Patrol Inspectors of Qinghe County were only responsible for escorting the laborers to the Prefecture. By convention, everything that followed had nothing to do with Qinghe County. Once the forced labor period ended, the Prefecture would notify the county, and the county would then send Patrol Inspectors to bring the laborers back.

The matter... was clearly unusual...

Chu Mu glanced at the departing procession of forced laborers and shook his head inwardly. More than a thousand lives—and all of them strong men in the prime of their lives. In this era, every one of them could be called the pillar of a household.

More than a thousand lives had vanished soundlessly just like that. For Qinghe County, this clearly would not be a minor matter.

The county office would provide a substantial pension for the Patrol Inspectors who had died in service, along with compensation for him taking over his father's post.

But what about those thousand forced laborers?

Could they also receive proper pensions and compensation? Judging from the original owner's memories of the county office, that was clearly unlikely.

At such a sensitive juncture, they were still conscripting forced labor...

After thinking for a moment, Chu Mu shook his head and forcibly suppressed his wandering thoughts. For the time being, this had very little to do with him, an outsider from another world, and there was no need to seek trouble for himself.

"Things probably won't be very peaceful from here on out..."

Chu Mu surveyed the still-bustling streets, pressed his lips together, and silently started walking. Alone, he slowly headed home.

"Mu Ge'er!"

After he had taken only a few steps, the voice reaching his ears made Chu Mu stop again. He turned and saw a Shaonian with a youthful face, dressed in Patrol Inspector Armor, running toward him.

As usual, once he saw the Shaonian's face clearly, the sealed memories in his mind surfaced as well.

"Xu Yuan?"

Chu Mu called out uncertainly.

"Mu Ge'er, what are you doing?"

Compared to Chu Mu's awkwardness, the Shaonian was clearly far more at ease. After jogging a few steps to Chu Mu's side, he looked quite familiarly at the School Bag in Chu Mu's hand.

"It's just some writing supplies. What's there to see?"

Chu Mu smiled. His memories and reality had finally merged.

Xu Yuan, like the original owner, was also a wretched soul.

His mother had likewise died young, while his father had served as a Patrol Inspector. His father, too, had died in the course of escorting forced laborers.

His father and the original owner's father had been extremely close. The two families had kept in close contact, and when they were both transferred to serve in Nanshan Town, they had come together. Thus, the original owner and Xu Yuan had naturally become quite familiar, good friends.